Monthly Archives: May 2013

This debate on the proposed amendment to the City Code to establish as an official, permanent, City Board or Commission, a Domestic Violence Review Board, Advisory Panel, Task Force, etc. is distracting from what many have amplified: this is NOT about Officer Involved Domestic Violence (OIDV). We need everyone to focus on developing an adequate, responsive and accountable system of police intervention in community based incidents of Intimate Partner Violence (IPV)/ Domestic Violence (DV), etc.

Right now there are two Domestic Violence Review Boards in the City (controlled by the administration) and one independent Citizen Police Review Board whose charter mandates review of all things related to police. Personally, I see Bill 2013-1482 as redundant, extraordinarily so, but I also see a very important purpose for a temporary, ad hoc, task-driven group of IPV/DV advisors related to the implementation of the Maryland Lethality Assessment Protocol.

I would encourage appointment of a focused advisory task force impaneled to sit concurrently with the 24 month implementation of the Maryland LAP. They would provide guidance, research and evaluation related to the LAP project. At the end of the two years, the need to codify such an advisory group could be reconsidered.

The substance of the landmark 2007 OIDV legislation must be off the table, and the public be assured that there is NOT a surreptitious intention to impanel this IPV/DV Board/Panel/Task Force for the real purpose of dissecting and deconstructing the OIDV ordinance. This is a common suspicion and, if accurate, is certainly not the way to go about a policy debate. It’s a sneaky notion and one that betrays public trust.

The sponsor, Councilman Burgess, set forth a legislative package to honor Ms. Wade and hopefully to prevent a similar event in the future. Officers responded to Ms. Wade as a call for “unknown trouble” not a call known to be DV related. Ms. Wade was not the victim of OIDV. So how did we get to an agenda apparently seeking to review OIDV under the guise of police implementing the Maryland Lethality Assessment under the direction of a third domestic violence advisory entity?

Another issue that comes up is the alleged disparate treatment of cops as a class different from other employees (yes, we know they are, but nonetheless…) by amending the Citywide DV policy (ordinance derived from 2010-0009) to include the OIDV instead of OIDV residing under the Director of Public safety, but to bring that up now would make it muddier than it is already!Beth Pittinger is Executive Director of the Citizen Police Review Board (CPRB), an independent agency within the City of Pittsburgh set up to investigate citizen complaints about improper conduct by the Pittsburgh Bureau of Police. This editorial commentary does not reflect the official position of the CPRB.

The city’s URA owns a five-block long building right in the middle of it. A railroad also owns an easement upon it, and is asserting some interests. The river itself has a stake in its shoreline, and the People have a stake in both expanding Downtown and in keeping our best assets livable and fabulous.

The five-block-long Pennsylvania Railroad Fruit Auction and Sales building, which is expected to be a linchpin of a 50-plus-acre development on surrounding land owned by the Buncher Co., has been formally nominated for historic status.

Lawrenceville resident Sarah Kroloff and Preservation Pittsburgh filed a nomination for the building with the city’s Historic Review Commission on Tuesday morning, an action spurred in part by the demolition permit posted on it. (Tim Schooley, PBT Next Move)

Historic nominations take about a 3-6 month period to process. The Ravenstahl administration of today and the Peduto administration of Jan. 1, 2014 have different notions whether the Buncher’s present plans should move forward — or if these plans should be dialed back and re-thought with a business model reliant on more creativity and that is more sensitive to the wishes of others.

Ordinarily, this is just the sort of thing that turns to fisticuffs. We shall see.

On Wednesday, June 5th, 2013 at 1:00 pm, at the request of Pittsburgh City Council Member Theresa Kail-Smith, there will be a Council public post agenda hearing for discussion of legislation introduced by City Council Member, Rev. Burgess, Bill No. 2013-1482, entitled, Establishment of Pittsburgh Domestic Violence Advisory Board.

This post is an invitation to begin a preliminary discussion of questions like these:

In light of the past few years, what roles and powers would such a panel usually have? How should this panel function differently?

What main questions and concerns should this Advisory Panel address?

What do you think the short, medium and long term outcome goals of such a panel should be?

What organizations, stakeholders and interest groups should be represented on the advisory panel?

How will the invitation and selection process to the panel be managed and communicated to the public?

How might such a panel work to engage, learn from and educate a wider range of communities and stakeholders?

How should such a panel function?

Should all meetings be open to the public?

How should ongoing Advisory Panel functions, meetings and findings be communicated with greater Pittsburgh and stakeholders?

How might such a panel function most effectively in advising Council members in the crafting of legislation and policy?

How might such a panel engage the FOP to build better grounds for more effective community policing in neighborhoods most in need of more effective domestic violence response?

I may add links in this space to information which is suggested during our discussions and during interviews with various officials and experts over the next few days. Next week I will be writing a new post after I digest whatever Stone Soup we cook up together.

“Once the feds get involved and people start down the cooperation path, you never know what you’re going to end up with,” said veteran defense attorney Stanton D. Levenson. “And I think that’s what you’re seeing. They’re moving into areas they didn’t know about originally. (Mod Squad, Post-Gazette)

My speculation is that the Feds are convinced they have something on people higher up than Harper – given their confidence in allowing numerous wee details to leak out over time, since that time.

But now that we are finally past the primary election, and a “new coalition” running on a believable promise of a “clean sweep” has won, it is certainly possible that more individuals will be willing to blow rusty whistles and share new perspectives with the Pittsburgh Investigators – for the sake of the accuracy and appropriateness of whatever charges are coming. Important to get this right. Preferable to be on the right side of history.

While we’re on the subject… remember that public-to-political e-mail lists theory? A new respondent has since reached out to this blog, who has received Wagner campaign e-mails in an account used at, and for, a place of employment over 20 miles from Pittsburgh. That would seem to rule out the exonerating theory of e-mail lists purchased from firms “by zip code”. The respondent further denies ever having subscribed to any political campaign through that account, ruling out the other legitimating avenue. But yes, the respondent indeed claims it had previously been used to sign up for e-mails “from the City (of Pittsburgh) and the Mayor.”

In any event, ring the City Bell if we learn anything new and conclusive about investigations into our city. ProTip: If you have helped, that bell will sound more lovely.

Bloggers typically get to pick and choose which mile markers and civic events in the real world they are inclined to acknowledge.

Yet for the holiday set aside to remember those who offered up their lives in desperate efforts that we all might democratically scribble and scheme in pursuit of civic changes, bliss or even vengeance, there is no option:

Let us, then, at the time appointed, gather around their sacred remains and garland the passionless mounds above them with choicest flowers of springtime; let us raise above them the dear old flag they saved from dishonor; let us in this solemn presence renew our pledges to aid and assist those whom they have left among us as sacred charges upon the Nation’s gratitude, — the soldier’s and sailor’s widow and orphan.

It is the purpose of the Commander-in-Chief to inaugurate this observance with the hope it will be kept up from year to year, while a survivor of the war remains to honor the memory of his departed comrades. He earnestly desires the public press to call attention to this Order, and lend its friendly aid in bringing it to the notice of comrades in all parts of the country in time for simultaneous compliance therewith. (Gen. John A. Logan, 1868)

In recent months we have had occasion to recall wounds still fresh and be roused by passions terribly heated. It is uncomfortable to contemplate the dissonant implications of living in a democratic nation with a large standing army active around the world foiling innumerable determined adversaries so bitterly resentful of our history.

As we attempt to cope and to grow as a nation, let us all throughout remember our fallen soldiers of each era, and attempt to conjure how they would now wish their lives and missions be remembered.

He came up to me that day shortly after he withdrew from the 2007 primary (happens to the best of us!) and joked that he liked the “Peduto for Pittsburgh” sticker I had on my laptop, but that he wasn’t as sure about the “I Like Luke” sticker on the opposite side. I shook his hand, thanked him for introducing himself, and informed him that impartial analysis and political objectivity are very important to my blog.

Seems like a lifetime ago, to have been so prim and stodgy.

After small-talk I asked for and received an interview arrangement, and I was fairly impressed. With my own work of course.

But you can look through my archives (I just have) and in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2012 were there were no long paeans or even short clear arguments for the awesomeness and splendor which which I have lately been describing Councilman Bill Peduto.

Go ahead and look.

I agreed with him on a growing number of issues over the years (the frictions with our medical nonprofits, modernization of operations, the fact of corruption, prevailing wage, ethics reform, the need for a pension funding compromise, CBA’s…) but this blogger would never just stop and say, “What a wonderful leader.”

Because what a naive thing to say! About any politician. Especially someone logging more and more years in City Hall.

Because he just wants to be top dog like everybody else. Right?

What I want to see is my hometown thriving. Growing. Not leveling off, but booming. Successful, brimming with opportunity and at peace throughout. The politicians are a means to an end.

Considering his experience with the revitalization work in his City Council district, Mr. Peduto is ideally prepared to contribute to ongoing revitalization efforts now going on in neighborhoods like Allentown, Beltzhoover and Carrick. With his vision, the commercial corridors of Brownsville Road and Warrington Avenue could see their own renaissance.

Mr. Peduto has also been a supporter of Councilman Bruce Kraus’ work in South Side with the RHI and understands a balance is necessary between the wants of a thriving commercial corridor and busy nightlife and the needs of a neighborhood.

With his experience in city government and the support he has received, Mr. Peduto has demonstrated he will be able to work with county and state elected officials to bring about the changes that will benefit the City of Pittsburgh as a whole.

Peduto’s interest and experience in helping to foster jobs and development is so unimpeachable, he sometimes takes flak from his left for having opened the door to too much gentrification in East Liberty, or exploring turning the devastatingly shuttered Schenley Highschool into a profitable and vibrant community asset once again, even as apartments or condominiums.

Even though we have some serious concerns about Peduto’s commitment to the Black community, and his ability to work with Black elected officials, he has accumulated an impressive variety of Black elected support led by such names as Bill Robinson, Ed Gainey, and Valerie McDonald Roberts. This is not just support on paper, they have been willing to come out in support of him at various public functions, which means if elected he will owe a lot to the Black community and Black leaders. This will be a starting point in getting some of the many devastating problems solved in the Black communities throughout this city, because these are not just token leaders supporting him, many are the backbone of our community.

We are not saying Wagner would not make a good mayor, and that the city will be devastated if he wins. We are saying that among three good men, Peduto is our choice because we haven’t heard anything from Wagner to say he’s a better choice, and we don’t see high profile Black leaders in support of him.

Downtown development is great. There is a lot of focus on it, but it is supposed to be a central business district. And it does need work, to be inviting to the world.

Have you ever noticed the rest of our developments are kind of weird islands? “The North Shore”, with it’s 12 identical upmarket sports bars and no place to grab a slice of pizza or buy gum? Bakery Square, which hosts great events and upped the stature of Google from when they dwelt at CMU, but is just a bizarre little shopping cube unto itself that few actually frequent or even much enjoy? Even the South Side Works looks a little otherworldly, and has had some serious struggles.

The barriers to entry to invest are immense. Toby Keith will profit from it. We can be his waitstaff, which is probably a poor a job for a family provider, as are many of these housekeeping jobs. Unless workers are pro-actively protected with unions. But like as not these days, the developers win every last concession for the tenants in a hand-shake on the front end. Concessions from the labor, from community-oriented planning, and from taxpayers already baked in.

Bill Peduto has been about union protections and better wages for subsidized developments, for Community Benefits Agreements near the North Shore and elsewhere, for community “top-down” “flip-the-paradigm” public investment for ages. And ages and ages. It is cliche already.

Outside of his own district, Peduto’s vision on this has been checked and opposed at every turn under Ravenstahl. As Mayor himself…

He is the only one on the campaign trail talking about it. Incessantly. The others will not deign to address this major Peduto campaign theme one way or the other. It’s actually getting weird.

So much public money pours into the City for economic development! How much better to let your son open an auto body shop, let your daughter open a restaurant with it? Repair and restore business districts, enhance troubled street corners, repair sagging houses and transform problem corridors one lot at a time? Or simply keep kids off the street, or to prepare younger ones and their guardians for life in the School District?

With all the subsidized towering sandstone and cathedrals of glass we build in our Potemkin villages, how many real business districts could we revive or create? To do what neighborhoods come together and decide they want to do with it?

But the most intriguing aspect of Peduto’s campaign is the sheer amount of policy proposals he has submitted that deal directly with modernization, many of which benefit college students and graduates. One of these proposals details “innovation incubators,” which can serve as transitional space for startup companies within the city.

He claims that the city needs policies that emphasize modernity in order to capitalize on the growing economy — a claim that’s certainly relevant considering Pittsburgh’s aging infrastructure and underdeveloped services.

More importantly, many of Peduto’s policy proposals focus on combating unemployment and poverty at their roots by improving early childhood education programs and preventing the closing of neighborhood schools.

Compare this with his primary opponent, former City Councilman and State Auditor Jack Wagner. While Wagner certainly has an edge in experience over Peduto, he hasn’t communicated a policy agenda, nor has he relayed how he plans to modernize the city of Pittsburgh.

It is hard to credibly claim to be a government “modernizer” with this record, as he does.

Wagner’s large office of 200+ performed some admirable audits, their central job. Lord knows there is enough to criticize. Is state government, as he claims, “substantially better” now? I leave that to greater experts, but can note only that “Auditor General” is one of those perches that requires no votes or executive actions. You can pick and choose on what you want to chime in. You don’t have to put yourself out there all the time, you don’t have to climb down from sitting on any fences.

Wagner is a skilled politician, and by all accounts a dedicated public servant. He is however carrying the banner of some interests that are privileged and some interests that have failed. It is the monopoly of those interests that has allowed City government to calcify, to remain stuck in the patronage past, dodge accountability, have to learn the same lessons over and over.

Wagner is boasting of his leadership but he is not illustrating it. He has not offered Pittsburgh a vision beyond an oil painting of himself on a horse against a sunset.

On utilizing green infrastructure to change the paradigm from giant underground septic tanks to distributed parks and gardens projects, Peduto was leading.

On succeeding under pressure to solve the state pensions takeover crisis — which by the way saved all those police and firefighters’ butts from Chairman Ravenstahl’s hostage-taking to get his parking lease enacted — Peduto was leading.

But will Mayor Peduto be any better than the rest of them, in the end? Once he’s in charge, won’t he adopt the old ways like everyone else?

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I was at a campaign event recently where Bill said, into a microphone, “I guess I just don’t like greedy people.” And he shrugged.

Be honest, Pittsburgh Comet readers. Aside from his wonkishness, don’t you find something a little other-than-usual about this guy? Something unlike most politicians? The capacity to get frustrated? The empathy to be sincerely offended? A stubbornness to not go along just to get along?

Some people look at governments as things to make money off of. To milk. To woo, to pitch and to take maximum advantage of. Sometimes they leave a gratuity.

The Councilman had more than enough opportunity to acquiesce to “the way things have always worked.” To relax and settle in. But he hasn’t. Awkward though it can come across as anyone matures, he remains fiercely young and idealistic heart.

I can tell you exactly what will be the problems with a Peduto administration: instead of an absentee mayor with no vision beyond pleasing his allies and letting his administration blow in the wind, it may feel like we have a micro-managing mayor wedded to his own personal vision and looking down on people he considers “old guard.”

Like President Obama, he will be accused of being a cold fish. Of not glad-handing sufficiently, of disrespecting people he thinks are being unfair to what he perceives as the consensus approach, of not making enough of an effort to be generous with collegial affection. Not enough golf and racquetball.

What can I say? We might… or it might not be that bad! Maybe we have our own responsibility to hold our mayor’s feet to the fire no matter who she or he is. Yet with a policy-driven, reform-minded administration, the City should at least get to encounter better, higher-order problems and opportunities alike, than to be stuck in first gear and not realizing our greater potentials.

Comet Senior Political Analyst Morton Reichbaum credited Mayor Luke Ravenstahl for “changing the face of Pittsburgh” — for revealing the great things we have going on with our eds and meds, for earning the world’s attention, for bringing back our confidence. An 80 year-old man, he was excited about youthful, vibrant leadership.

Bill Peduto represents the capacity for that kind of vibrant leadership, for forward-thinking leadership, for responsible leadership and for ethical leadership. For leadership that will garner national and international attention for trying new things and attracting new constituencies. Yes, Mr. Peduto has been in his share of fights with Chairman Ravenstahl. But to his credit, he’s been on the right side of almost all of them, and has gained allies steadily along the way.

If this blogger were to politically pontificate and psychoanalyze that over the past six years Mr. Peduto has been further honed and sharpened by his experiences dealing with our present mayor — committing to firm principles, forging alliances accordingly, reaching out to communities — can I get away with not having to write something like, “He’s a new kind of leader?” “He’s the kind of leader Pittsburgh needs?” “He is a politician that I believe in?” “A politician who cares about regular people?”

No, I could never get away with being that besotted. You would lose all respect for me as the cynical, world-weary political expert that I am. Let’s just say Bill Peduto is clearly Pittsburgh’s best option among the available candidates, and leave it at that.

By the way, do you think Pennsylvania’s Republicans are looking forward to the prospect of unified, progressive executive leadership in the drivers’ seat in Southwestern Pennsyltucky — performing community-positive accomplishments through government innovation, providing new regional models? Do you think that will be good for statewide GOP candidates and GOP interests, to have #NewPittsburgh blowing up? I think the Elephants in the room must be desperately concerned.

I will not take this selection process lightly and refuse to limit my search to only a handful of individuals in the Police Bureau. As mayor I will ensure the community has a strong voice and critical part in this process. You will be at the table from day one playing a role in helping myself and other professionals define the criteria for the selection process and ensuring we consider the best talent available. Minneapolis, Minnesota used this same approach… (People for Peduto)

I want a mayor who thinks like this.

I want a Mayor who draws lines like these in the sand.

Councilman Peduto isn’t saying he has all the answers, he’s saying we all can arrive at them but only once we’re willing to peer beyond the nearest ridges and hills. Steel City? They invented steel in Turkey, Africa, Sparta and China. But once Pittsburgh embraced it, nobody could make it better.

Part of esprit de corps is welcoming new mates and new tools into your foxhole, adapting as an organization and overcoming challenges. It’s the mission we rally around, not internal politics and routine.

Justin Laing at Hillombo, a blog of the Hill District and of the African-American experience in Pittsburgh, says he is voting for Bill Peduto — not as any sort of fanatic, but rather as his best option available.

But the $64,000 question is does the Wheatley Campaign or Mr. Udin, as the convener of the PBPC, have their own Hill dog in the Peduto v. Wagner fight we are seeing play out everyday? I would think so. As anyone participating in or watching Hill District civic life knows, Wheatley and City Councilman Daniel Lavelle are allies. Both worked for former Councilman Udin, both serve on the Greater Hill District Development Growth Fund, and both are active supporters of the Hill District Community Development Corp of which Mr. Udin is a longstanding board member. Add to this that Peduto and Daniel Lavelle are known not to be supportive of one another or even on speaking terms and a Peduto win could well diminish Lavelle’s current authority and capacity to impact the Hill District through support of the Hill District CDC since, as Mayor, Peduto would be unlikely to keep Lavelle as Vice-Chair of the Urban Redevelopment Authority. This is turn would affect the plans for the Lower Hill’s 28 acres; a process being led by Lavelle and the Hill CDC. This potential creates its own separate set of political incentives. (Hillombo)

He said a mouthful!

Although it’s debatable how icy and intractable any feud between Councilmen Lavelle and Peduto really is — I suspect Mr. Lavelle does not, as a matter of his own political strategy, wish to get along with Mr. Peduto, but that might easily change if Mr. Peduto became Mayor — what strikes me here is Mr. Laing’s implicit conclusion that what’s bad for the Hil CDC’s current process of planning in the Lower Hill is not necessarily bad for the Lower Hill.

A quick recent history lesson: after Mayor Ravenstahl fought against employing concrete terms in any community benefits agreement connected with Consol Center and Civic Arena footprint development, and fought funding for initiatives originating in the neighborhood, popular opinion finally won out. However, in the agreement that was eventually signed, the Hill House / Hill CDC was put on the spot due to its “stature in the community” to guide many of the processes, including the master planning process and the development interests.

This really set up a lot of bad things, in my opinion. First of all, it empowers and puts pressure on that one group’s officers and interested parties in a way no community group has the capacity to sustain. No one community group ought to have responsibility, or the right, to represent “the whole community.” All over the City, when groups claim to do this, other groups spring up in response, which are derided as “illegitimate.” In the Hill District there have certainly been factions, and singling out any exclusive group to work with the Mayor’s office as “the community” is not helpful.

Secondly, putting a group in charge in this way defers accountability – to that group. If things delay or sour, if the direction becomes unpopular, members of the community turn on the empowered group.

When Candidate Peduto talks and writes about community consensus development and development roundtables, or “turning the paradigm upside down,” it can easily sound like so much rhetoric. But to me what it really means is accepting responsibility for leadership, for bringing community concerns to the table on an equal footing, and for progressing via consensus. Not for setting up processes which obscure leadership and pressure chosen community interests to sell the City’s or a developer’s point of view, that reward those interests for their loyalty and seek to exploit those partnerships for political gain.

Mayor Peduto would be putting himself on the spot, and the only way he would gain is if the community is happy with the plans they have consensed upon and if successful developments emerge on what seems like a reasonable schedule. That’s not only accountability, that’s a fair and open process that doesn’t turn frustrated and opportunity-starved communities against themselves.

UPDATE / POSTSCRIPT: No more deferring blame; no more playing games. No more picking favorites and pitching political deals involving political commitments. No more wrapping what are essentially “Downtown,” executive-suite plans all in community gift-wrapping, tied together with promises that our long history shows are too often deferred and abandoned. Jobs, development and opportunity will be sought furiously — but will be built on a solid foundation of neighborhood consensus and pride. The CDCs and the nonprofit and private interests that are involved will be better off as respected, organized advocates and accomplished experts eager to participate within their neighborhoods, but not as “owning” the process. Let’s do public business in the public sphere, where the weighty decisions are ultimately made, where transparency is possible, where accountability is clear and where any Mayor can be made to listen. Only one candidate emphasizes listening to the community.